Fuels and Oxidants

Data for the several flame methods assume an acetylene-nitrous oxide flame residing on a 5- or 10-cm slot burner. The sample is nebulized into a spray chamber placed immediately ahead of the burner. Detection limits are quite dependent on instrument and operating variables, particularly the detector, the fuel and oxidant gases, the slit width, and the method used for background correction and data smoothing. 

Thermal energy in flame atomization is provided by the combustion of a fuel-oxidant mixture. Common fuels and oxidants and their normal temperature ranges are listed in Table 10.9. Of these, the air-acetylene and nitrous oxide-acetylene flames are used most frequently. Normally, the fuel and oxidant are mixed in an approximately stoichiometric ratio however, a fuel-rich mixture may be desirable for atoms that are easily oxidized. The most common design for the burner is the slot burner shown in Figure 10.38. This burner provides a long path length for monitoring absorbance and a stable flame. 

Water-in-od emulsion explosives have been made as typified by a formulation containing 20% water, 12% oil, 2% microspheres, 1% emulsifier, and 65% ammonium nitrate. The micro droplets of an emulsion explosive offer the advantage of intimate contact between fuel and oxidizer, and tend to equal or outperform conventional water-based slurries. 

The Beckstead-Derr-Price model (Fig. 1) considers both the gas-phase and condensed-phase reactions. It assumes heat release from the condensed phase, an oxidizer flame, a primary diffusion flame between the fuel and oxidizer decomposition products, and a final diffusion flame between the fuel decomposition products and the products of the oxidizer flame. Examination of the physical phenomena reveals an irregular surface on top of the unheated bulk of the propellant that consists of the binder undergoing pyrolysis, decomposing oxidizer particles, and an agglomeration of metallic particles. The oxidizer and fuel decomposition products mix and react exothermically in the three-dimensional zone above the surface for a distance that depends on the propellant composition, its microstmcture, and the ambient pressure and gas velocity. If aluminum is present, additional heat is subsequently produced at a comparatively large distance from the surface. Only small aluminum particles ignite and bum close enough to the surface to influence the propellant bum rate. The temperature of the surface is ca 500 to 1000°C compared to ca 300°C for double-base propellants. 

Hydrogen use as a fuel in fuel cell appHcations is expected to increase. Fuel cells (qv) are devices which convert the chemical energy of a fuel and oxidant directiy into d-c electrical energy on a continuous basis, potentially approaching 100% efficiency. Large-scale (11 MW) phosphoric acid fuel cells have been commercially available since 1985 (276). Molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) ate expected to be commercially available in the mid-1990s (277). 

In the context of chemometrics, optimization refers to the use of estimated parameters to control and optimize the outcome of experiments. Given a model that relates input variables to the output of a system, it is possible to find the set of inputs that optimizes the output. The system to be optimized may pertain to any type of analytical process, such as increasing resolution in hplc separations, increasing sensitivity in atomic emission spectrometry by controlling fuel and oxidant flow rates (14), or even in industrial processes, to optimize yield of a reaction as a function of input variables, temperature, pressure, and reactant concentration. The outputs ate the dependent variables, usually quantities such as instmment response, yield of a reaction, and resolution, and the input, or independent, variables are typically quantities like instmment settings, reaction conditions, or experimental media. 

Flame Types and Their Characteristics. There are two main types of flames diffusion and premixed. In diffusion flames, the fuel and oxidant are separately introduced and the rate of the overall process is determined by the mixing rate. Examples of diffusion flames include the flames associated with candles, matches, gaseous fuel jets, oil sprays, and large fires, whether accidental or otherwise. In premixed flames, fuel and oxidant are mixed thoroughly prior to combustion. A fundamental understanding of both flame types and their stmcture involves the determination of the dimensions of the various zones in the flame and the temperature, velocity, and species concentrations throughout the system. 

Many different configurations of diffusion flames exist in practice (Fig. 4). Laminar jets of fuel and oxidant are the simplest and most well understood diffusion flames. They have been studied exclusively in the laboratory, although a complete description of both the transport and chemical processes does not yet exist (2). 

Flame Temperature The heat released by the chemical reaction of fuel and oxidant heats the POC. Heat is transferred from the POC, primarily by radiation and convection, to the surroundings, and the resulting temperature in the reaction zone is the flame temperature. If there is no heat transfer to the surroundings, the flame temperature equals the theoretical, or adiabatic, flame temperature. 

The bipolar plate material of the PAFC is graphite. A portion of it has a carefully controlled porosity that sei ves as a resei voir for phosphoric acid and provides ffow channels for distribution of the fuel and oxidant. The plates are elec tronically conductive but impervious to gas crossover. 

Optimum Mixture A specific mixture of fuel and oxidant that yields the most rapid comhustion at a specific measured quantity or that yields the lowest value of the minimum ignition energy or that produces the maximum deflagration pressure. The optimum mixture is not always the same for each comhustion property that is measured. 

Grove recognized that electrodes above the surface of an electrolyte, (e.g., sulfuric acid) would be wetted by capillary action and so allow the platinum electrodes to catalyze the electrochemical reactions of a fuel and oxidant stich as hydrogen and oxygen. 

Premixed Flame. For this type of flame, the fuel and oxidizer—both gases—arc mixed together before flowing to the flame zone (the thin region of the flame). A typical example is the inner core of a Bunsen burner (Figure 1), or combustion in an auto-... 

Diffusion Flame. Wlien the fuel and oxidizer are initially unmixed and then mix in a thin region where the flame is located, the flame is called a diffusion flame (Figure 2). The word diffusion is used to describe the flame because the fuel and oxidizer are mixed on the molecular level by the random thermal motion of the molecules. An example of a diffusion flame is a candle flame or flares at an oil refinei y. 

Explosives and propellants are mixtures of fuel and oxidizer. The intensity of combustion is determined by the heat of combustion per pound of material, the material s density, the gas volume generated per volume of material, and the rate of deflagration or detonation. The latter, the most important variable, is determined by the speed at which fuel and oxidizer molecules combine. 

A fuel cell system also needs ancillaries to support the stack, just as an IC engine has many of the same type of ancillary subsystems. Major subsystems are needed for providing adequate humidification and cooling, and for supplying fuel and oxidant (air) with the correct purity and appropriate c uantity. 

The object to be propelled carries the material to be pushed against, and usually carries the energy source as well (fuel and oxidant). Some examples of this type are rockets, inflated balloons released to exhaust their air, and ion engines. The inflated balloon would be propelled by interaction with its released air even if it were released in space. It does not push against the air around itself. In fact, the ambient air only tends to impede its motion. 

A solid propellant is a mechanical (heterogeneous) or a chemical (homogeneous, or colloidal) mixture of solid-state fuel and oxidizer-rich chemicals. Specially-formed charges of solid propellant (grains) arc placed in the combustion chamber of the solid rocket motor (SRM) at a production facility. Once assembled, the engine does not require additional maintenance, making it simple, reliable and easy to use. 

A liquid propellant consists of two liquid chemicals, fuel and oxidizer, which arc delivered from separate tanks into the cninbtistinii chamher of a liquid propellant rocket engine (LPRE). 

Only 5-15 per cent of the nebulised sample reaches the flame (in the case of the pre-mix type of burner) and it is then further diluted by the fuel and oxidant gases so that the concentration of the test material in the flame may be extremely minute. 

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